" The success of the little bank for children, con nected with the Tottenham Iemale Benefit Club, mentioned in a former part of the reports, encouraged the present design ; and it may be worth remarking, that the bank was opened by an orphan girl of four teen, who placed L.2 in it, which she had earned in very small sums, and saved in the Benefit Club." In 1805 and 1806, two pamphlets were published by Mr Bone, in the first of which he seems to have had it chiefly in view to point out the objects to which a scheme for preventing among the poor the miseries of want ought principally to be directed ; in the se cond, to sketch the form of an institution by which those objects might be obtained. The scheme of Mr Bone is, however, nearly as comprehensive as that of Mr Bentham, and, therefore, extending far beyond the subject to which the present article is confined. The following are its principal objects : 1. To provide comfortable dwellings for all who require them.
2. Sums for their maintenance.
S. A provision for widows and children, education for the latter included.
5. Temporary dwellings to destitute strangers.
6. To afford small loans.
7. Provision for persons who have belonged to the army or navy.
. 8. To grant annuities to persons to whom that mode of assistance is the best adapted.
9. To afford a provision for persons lame, or other wise disabled.
10. To procure situations and employment for those deprived of them.
11. To nurse and educate children, as many as possible of the children of those who are themselves the least qualified for the task.
12. To provide baths and lavatories for the poor.
To the accomplishment of this scheme, banking, however, contributes a diminutive part. It is not proposed that all this should be accomplished by the funds of the poor themselves. The receipt, however, of the contributions of the poor, forms an essential article of the plan, and so far it involves in it the prin. oiple of a savings-bank. It was proposed to receive the contributions of single persons, and return them with premiums at the period of marriage ; to receive, farther, the contributions both of the single and the married, with a view to the future and ultimate provision ; for though all persons would, according to this scheme, receive a provision, it would be a provision with more or less of excellence, according to the contributions of the individual.
In 1807, the minister of the parish of West Calder, in Scotland, founded a bank for the savings of the principal class of his parishioners ; and in 1810, without any knowledge of what had been accom plished in West Calder, Mr Duncan, the minister of Ruthwell, • another of the Scottish parishes, esta blished one in his own,.in nearly a similar form. Mr
Duncan, in a well written pamphlet, in which he de scribes ;he form of his own institution, and explains the object which the system has in view, and the principles upon which it is founded, informs us, that his idea of an economical bank for the savings of the industrious, was accidentally suggested to him by a perusal of the pamphlet, entitled, Tranquillity, of Mr Bone, at a time when his mind was peculiarly excited to the consideration of the subject, by the circumstances of the poor in the town and vicinity of Dumfries, and by the threatened approach of what. he deemed a national misfortune, the introduction of poor-rates.
The course pursued by Mr Duncan is in the high est degree instructive. It is founded upon an ac curate knowledge of human nature, in which the men who step forth from elevated situations to ame liorate the condition of their fellow-creatures, are in general singularly deficient, and therefore most cpmmonly reap nothing but the natural fruit of inju dicious measures—disappointment. As a great effect was intended to be produced upon the minds of the people, Mr Duncan saw the necessity of carrying the minds of the people along with him, and of adopting _ the most powerful means for making them feel and take an interest in the concern. Unless the interest is felt, and powerfully felt, the operation of the machinery will be feeble, and its effects trifling. Novelty may give it some appearance of strength for a time, but this will gradually decay.
In the first place, it was necessary that every cause of obstruction should be removed. " The prejudices of the people should be carefully consulted ; they should be treated even with delicacy ; and the most unreasonable scruples of the ignorant and suspicious should, as far as possible, be obviated." It is not duly considered by the upper ranks of. he popula tion, how inseparable from human nature are the susi picions of those who are weak, toward those who are strong; the suspicions of those who are liable to be hurt, toward those who are capable of hurting them. And it is only the blindness of self-love, and our in attention to evils in which we are not called to parti cipate, that leave us ignorant of the actual grounds in practice, whence, even in this country, the insti tutions of which are so much more favourable than those of most other countries to the poor, the weak have reason to dread the interference of the strong.